Trolls are a class of monster in NetHack. They are notable because the corpses of dead trolls will revive (as do the endgame Riders). For that reason, trolls are one of the more annoying monsters. Trolls can also make good use out of polearms - the range they can hit things with a polearm in hand is equal to that of a character whose skill level in polearms is Skilled. They have an 50% chance of being generated with either a ranseur, partisan, glaive, or spetum[1].

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Generally speaking, for well armed characters, the problem with trolls is not so much to kill them, as to get rid of them without having them auto-revive. There are a large number of ways to kill a troll permanently, many of which fall into the general category of putting the corpse inside something:

Eat the corpse. This is a readily available option as long as nothing nearby requires your immediate response and the character is not satiated, but the troll can revive while being eaten. Well, I know that the troll won't revive in your character's stomach.

Let a pet eat the corpse. This has the advantage that it will disappear as soon as the pet starts to eat, though not everyone has a carnivorous pet.

While not as strong as some other tamable creatures, higher level trolls are still reasonably strong, can make use of some weapons, and can auto-revive when killed (even though they do not always revive tame, the chance is small for them to revive hostile as long as you do not abuse them or kill them yourself accidentally). While they are not exactly so powerful that they're worth going out of your way to tame, a tame troll is still worth considering keeping.

If the troll revives and you can see it, you will receive the message "The [troll type] rises from the dead!" As a special case, if the troll revives while you are eating it, the message changes to "The bite covered [troll type] rises from the dead!". The "bite covered" part is not referred to again, for example in subsequent attack or death messages.

Ice trolls are immune to ice, and part of its attacks are cold-attributed and therefore preventable with Cold Resistance. It hits slightly harder than regular Trolls if its cold attack isn't resisted. They have a slightly lower AC and some MR.

Rock trolls are basically more powerful versions of your standard everyday Trolls. They hit slightly harder than Trolls and Ice Trolls, but have no remarkable attributes otherwise outside auto revivification. They have lower AC than Ice Trolls, but no MR.

Water trolls have higher MR than other trolls, but its AC is only on par with regular Trolls. They don't hit as hard as Rock Trolls, but they can swim, so dumping their corpse in water isn't effective at getting rid of them.